


The Man who Talks in Hands

by the_emerald_rose



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 20:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 14,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_emerald_rose/pseuds/the_emerald_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young scientist documents his time working for the mysterious Dr. Gaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The lab was smack dab in the middle of Hotland. I couldn't miss it if I tried. It was just a little ways from the Capital, where I'd been staying and studying. There wasn't much else in Hotland right now, but from the reports I'd been getting, the King had plans with my new boss to build some kind of power generator.

Before I could even reach up to knock on the door, it slid open, automatically. Nice touch. Err. Lack of touch. I steped inside casually, and took in my surroundings.

Unlike my own study and research space, this lab was immaculate. Everything had a place, and that's where it lived. There was no room for error. No room for any manner of slop. Heck, even the trashcan was empty. It almost looked like someone didn't work here.

My new boss's desk sat snugly in his office, and even that was neat. The only thing that seemed to give me the impression that it was personal at all was the picture on his desk. A happy family photo, of the doctor himself, with another person and a lump of baby blanket.

I turned when I heard footsteps behind me. Soft, fluffybuns footsteps. The doctor himself was there, along with the King. I took a bow to the King. The doctor looked a bit confused, but then looked at the King.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the King chuckled, "I forgot to tell you, didn't I?"

The doctor only looked more puzzled.

"We have a fresh face to work with you in the lab. He just got out of university."

I stepped forward and offered my hand. "A pleasure."

The doctor looked down at my hand, then at the king, then shook my hand. Here it is. The pinnacle of my pranking career.

FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The room was silent, save the last dregs of the whoopee cushion tucked into my palm. Then, I started to laugh. I just pranked THE Royal Scientist. The King was well aware of my antics, but the good doctor... well, he took it in good spirits. He had a sort of cackling laugh, the kind that would be perfect in a horror movie.

"I'm Dr. Sans Fontaine," I said, wiping a tear from my eye socket. "I'm excited to work with you."

The doctor stifled his laughs, then signed out, "DOCTOR GASTER."

The King beamed at our introductions, and said, "I'm sure the two of you will work fantastically together." With that, the King turned around and left.

I was left with the esteemed Dr. Gaster. This would be one heck of an experience, one that I wouldn't forget.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets a tour.

Dr. Gaster swept into his office, then checked over things, to make sure everything was alright. He wore a button down shirt and clacks under his white lab coat. Somehow, the coat seemed extra swishy. Probably not the best of lab atire, but a guy's gotta have his fashion sense, right? He turned and signed, "TOUR?"

"Sure."

Without another word, he swished out into the rest of the first floor. He cleared his throat and said, "This is... m-my... lab."

We stood there quietly, just looking around. I said, "This is one heck of a tour."

Dr. Gaster laughed nervously, then signed, "NOT GOOD AT TALKING."

I nodded in understanding, then looked around. "What do you do here?"

"Studying.... geothermal e-energy." He swished over to one of the tables, where blueprints had been laid out. Judging by the size of this thing... I skimmed them over as he said, "Th-this would... power the entire... cave."

I squinted at the handwriting. .... it looked like some kind of other language, or even a cypher or something, rather than something I read. I asked, "Is that all you're working on?"

He shook his head, then took my hand and lead me to another room. it was an elevator, leading down to the basement. Like the rest of the lab, the elevator was perfectly clean. How does one guy keep this place so darn clean?

The basement was more decorated, at least. This looked like his regular workspace. Tables and chairs and blueprints were laid out, and some prototypes sat tucked in corners, under tarps and the like. He signed, "WORK AREA."

There were other offices down here, with some other folks tucked inside. A dog, a bird, some kind of fish... writing notes, doing calculations, that sort of thing. I skimmed some of the blueprints pinned up to the wall.

"... What's this DETRIMENT you've got underlined?"

"D-Determin... Determination." I turned back to Dr.Gaster as he signed, "HUMAN THING."

I got in close to him as he swished down the hallway, towards a flight of stairs. I asked, "You're doing research on humans?" He nodded. "The same ones who got us down here?" He nodded again. "Dr. Gaster, if I may be frank, that sounds like the most boneheaded idea ever."

Dr. Gaster stopped to chuckle at the jokee, then said, "They got us down here. They might... get us out of here."

As we headed back upstairs, I asked, "How're we gonna get a human down here? What're the odds that a human just kind of trips down here and lives long enough for us to do... whatever this Determination thing is?"

Dr. Gaster shrugged. He gestured to an empty office and said, "I have hope."

We stepped inside. It was as unpersonal as the rest of the lab, and had a lovely view of some lava out the window. A bookshelf dominated one of the walls, towering a good four feet above me. I turned to Dr. Gaster, who had swished his way over to the door. "This mine?" I asked. He nodded. "Sweet." I reached into my pocket and fished out a Nice Cream wrapper, then tossed it on the floor. "NOW it's mine."

Dr. Gaster stared disapprovingly at my handiwork, then sighed and signed, "NOT IN THE HALL."

"Alright. This'll be MY trash zone, and not yours."

"DEAL."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plans are hatched.

Within the week, my office was just like I liked it. Hung on the wall was a beautiful painting I’d done in college of the trash zone in Waterfall. It reminded me of my inner self.

The room itself was just how I liked it. Fast food and Nice Cream wrappers were strewn across the floor, and my favorite self-sustaining tornado of garbage lived in the corner. Books from the lower shelves were stacked up in piles, sloppy piles. I’d read them, of course. I’m not about to stack up books I hadn’t read. I’m a slob, not a lazy fake academic.

I rested my feet on my desk as I read another book on quantum physics. Dr. Gaster stood at the door, surveying the damage. He inhaled sharply and said, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked, flipping through the book. Really well written stuff here. He gestured to the tornado. “Oh.” I got up and made my way over, gesturing, “It’s really delicate. Super precise and such.”

He stroked his chin. One of the first things he said when the mess was getting started was that it wasn’t allowed to stink, so that’s one thing I kept to. He signed, “FOR FUN?”

“Yeah, mostly. Boredom, too.”

He held up a finger, then ducked out of the room. When he came in next, he had a rolling ladder. He wheeled it to the bookshelf that was too high for me. I watched, bemusedly, as he scaled the ladder and pulled something off the tip of the bookshelf. He tossed it down. And suddenly, in my hands was a dusty, first edition of Tortimer the Terrific, one of the longest running superhero comics ever.

This thing was probably worth as much as the mythical Temmie and its Temmie Armor. Those don’t exist, but if they did...

He returned to ground floor and said, “Open it.”

I obliged.

Inside was an older quantum theory book, easily twice the size of the comic. He said again, “Open that, too.” And inside was a sealed newspaper from the day we got sealed underground.

I knew Dr. Gaster studied all kinds of things, but to think that his work coincided with my work...

I looked up and said, “I’ve been thinking about making a machine, right?” He listened intently. “One that monitors different timelines. Or maybe even allows us to move through them.”

He patted me on the shoulder and said, “O-one at... a time. Let’s get... the...” He stopped, then signed, “FIRST ONE.”

“So that we’re not hopping in blind?” He nodded. “Great idea.”

Before I could head downstairs to get started, he stopped me and said, “Core first.”

“Right. Once the core’s done, we can work on whatever we want, right?”

“Y-y-yes. That’s... part of my contract. Do... what the King wants, then...”

“Nice.” I smiled and said, “Let’s get to building us a core.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> science isn't all fun and games.

_The room was warmly lit, from candles casting through stained glass windows. From beyond the windows, he could hear the distant chime of bells. It was a serene space, near the royal library, but it wasn’t now._

_For the tenth time that night, things warped around him, and the THING stood there, a locket around its neck, and a sharp butcher’s knife in its hand._

_He laughed and said, “That’s ten times now. Wow. The big one-oh, huh?” He laughed some more, and the hands clenched tighter. “That’s the sort of thing you’d share with friends, right?” He paused. “Oh, wait. You don’t have any friends.”_

_And it began. Again._

_Lasers. Bones. “What, you think I’m gonna sit there and take it?” A knife, narrowly missing his neck. A laugh. Lasers. Cracks. And then the ripple._

_And there he was again, standing, waiting. Watching the THING approach, blade in hand, locket on neck. Warm light. Distant bells. Library._

_He closed his eyes and droned, “It’s a beautiful day out. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like these, kids like you...”_

_Lasers. Ripple._

_The THING was not happy._

I awoke with a start, cracking my skull on the low roof over my bed. I swore loudly, and down the hall, Dr. Gaster yelled, “Language!”

I groaned and replied, “Italian!”

“Not what I meant!!”

I had fallen asleep downstairs, in one of the breakrooms. They had little cots, set in a bunk fashion, and I’d taken top bunk. Bad idea. Something about the tight squeeze probably influenced that... weird dream. Ah well. I carefully slid out of bed, and made my way to the work room.

Dr. Gaster hadn’t slept, from the looks of the dark circles under his eye sockets. One of his assistants was busy getting coffee ready. The blueprints that I’d come up with lay next to the ones he was still working on. Don’t get me wrong, my writing’s not good, but at least you can still read it. Dr. Gaster, though...

I squinted at what looked like a hand. Wait, that’s... “Dr. Gaster?” I asked.

He snatched a cup of coffee from a bunny’s outstretched hand and downed it in one gulp.

“Are you... writing? In sign language?”

“YES.” His hands were shaking.

“How many cups have you had?”

“NOT ENOUGH.”

I looked back at the writing, and asked, “Why?”

Dr. Gaster sighed and hunched over the intricate calculation he’d scrawled across one corner. If they were off, it would be... catastrophic. Too much, they’d explode. Too little, it would implode. He finally said, “Cypher. Don’t want people stealing my work.”

“What, you don’t trust me?”

“No.”

“Oh. ... why not?”

“You’re messy.”

“That’s rude.”

“So’s being messy.” I sighed, then looked over at my work. Dr. G. wasn’t one for designing puzzles, but I sure could. Dr. Gaster took another swig of coffee from another cup, then asked, “Is that. Is that an entire floor of Junior Jumbles?”

“Yeah.”

He put the cup down, and his fingers shook as he signed, “WHY?”

“Why not?”

He finished the cup of coffee in one gulp, then said, “Junior Jumble is for baby bones. My son would do that in a flash.”

“Your son is also a puzzle master.”

“My son is also two, Sans.”

“Still!”

Dr. Gaster sighed, then asked, “Do you have any.... real plans?”

“Yeah, actually.” I flipped the blueprints over and pointed to the different chambers. “Each room is interchangable,” I said, pointing to how the room and the rest of the structure, based on Dr. Gaster’s original designs, connected. “So from a safe vantage point, like say the basement bunker, you could swap the rooms from one to another. Disorient any human that comes through.”

Dr. Gaster nodded in approval. He clapped me on the shoulder and said, “I’ll compliment you tomorrow. After I’ve slept.” With that, he turned back to his calculations.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> scale models of legos and children

The small scale replica of the CORE was beautiful. Standing for Center Of Repurposing Energy, the little model included all the interchangable rooms that I had created. You could take out all the rooms, and the facility would still function. Dr. Gaster and I had spent a few hours rigging the scale model to a computer, and getting the two to talk and getting the materials to work just right.

For a scale replica made in legos, it was pretty impressive.

“NYEH!” I scooped up Gaster’s kid before he could crash into the replica. “NYEEEEH!” the kid screamed, little arms and legs flailing.

“Yo, Dr. G!” I yelled, “I’m not a babysitter! I have a Ph.D!”

Dr. Gaster groaned and scooped the wailing toddler. He cooed, “Hush, now. I’ll get you some other toys later. You gotta behave, and listen to what Uncle Sans says, okay?”

The child screeched in anguish.

Dr. Gaster reached into his pocket and procured a small, rattling ball. He shook it in front of the kid, and all of a sudden, it was like there was no problems in the world. The kid’s bony fingers reached out, taking the ball. Dr. Gaster put him down, and the kid was as good as golden.

As soon as the kid was settled down, Asgore strode into the room. On either side of him were his own kids. Wait. Kids?

Indeed, the young Prince Asriel was on Asgore’s right. He was looking around the lab in stunned wonder, watching all the machines and gizmos and such. But on Asgore’s left was...

I leaned over to Dr. Gaster and asked, “Is that a human?”

Dr. Gaster nodded. He signed, “ADOPTED.”

“I think the press would lose their mind if Toriel had delivered a human child into the world.”

The human looked around with mild interest, before looking up at Asgore for guidance. Asgore cleared his throat and said, “Dr. Gaster. Dr. Fontaine. I hope you don’t mind that I brought my children with me. Toriel was busy today.”

As if to say he didn’t care, Dr. Gaster scooped up his kid and held him aloft.

Asgore waved and said, “Oh, hello, Papyrus!”

Papyrus squealed, “NYEH!”, then resumed shaking his rattleball.

Dr. Gaster put down Papyrus, then signed, “NAMES?”

“Oh, how rude of me.” Asgore cleared his throat and said, “The two of you know Asriel, of course.” Asriel waved chipperly. “This is Chara, a human child who fell into our home.” Chara was watching the assistants doing their assistantly things in the background. Asgore gently nudged them on the back and said, “What do we say, Chara?”

Chara cleared their throat and said, in perhaps the most saccharine voice I’d ever heard, “Pleased to meet you.”

I smiled and said, “Right. How about you two and Papyrus head on over to the break room while us three handle some business?”

Asriel scooped up Papyrus with a gentle touch, and lead Chara off into the breakroom. Chara looked back at us, almost like they were getting dragged to their death.

For a scale model made of legos, the king was incredibly impressed, and the design was improved. When the kids came back, Papyrus was nibbling on Asriel’s ear, and Chara looked a bit............. powdery.

Weird. Must’ve gotten into the powdered creamer or something.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The CORE lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this on an iPad!!

_“C’mon, buddy, don't you remember me?” He stretched his arms out in a show of good faith. The THING cocked its head to the side. “Just…” he said, “Just put the knife down, okay? Let's start over.”_

_And for a glorious second, he swore he saw his friend in there. And his friend was scared, and lost. And under that influence, the grip on the knife loosened, dangling in their fingers. But the THING took over, and it tightened the grip on the knife. And charged._

_He stepped aside, and said, “Welp. Was worth a shot, right?”_

_And the laser came out, and it was twenty times now. ___

__The CORE really was beautiful. Shimmering obsidian and striking glass made the structure as much an art piece as a functioning power source._ _

__Dr. Gaster stared up at the completed project. We had already tested the room swapping mechanic, and we knew how it would work like that. Now, it was a matter of flipping the switch._ _

__He sighed and signed, “BEAUTIFUL.”_ _

__“I know, right? It's like… another baby.”_ _

__He stopped. “A… A baby?”_ _

__“Well, yeah.” I gestured towards it and said, “We made this happen. Together. It's our kid.”_ _

__“That is so…” He paused. “Never thought of it like that.”_ _

__I handed over the switch and said, “Bring it to life.”_ _

__He considered the switch. The King and Queen were behind us, along with the press, and a good number of monsters. The King had already made a speech, and everyone now knew him as King Fluffybuns. And tiny Papyrus was… sitting next to me, watching the action excitedly._ _

__Dr. Gaster pulled the switch, and our giant obsidian and glass baby whirred to life. The people cheered in excitement as the lightbulb in my hand lit up._ _

__And like watching your kid take his first steps, I was filled with pride._ _

__We spent maybe the next week or so making sure everyone in the Underground had electricity, and things to use with their electricity. Candles and candelabras were replaced with electric lamps. Other scientists and assistants were making the cool new things people could use._ _

__Dr. Gaster and I, though, worked on something more... interesting._ _


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is the part where i get sued

I’m going to level with you.

I got no fecking idea how to design things.

Dr. Gaster hung over my shoulder as I scribbled in a shape on the white paper. I wiped some sweat from my brow. It had been a week since the CORE was powered up, and we were cleared to do whatever the heck we wanted. And what I wanted to do was make a goddamned time machine.

I looked up at him and asked, “What do you think?”

He lifted the paper up, and squinted at it. The way he looked at that paper, it looked like he could burn a hole through it. He finally lowered it enough to sign, “DOCTOR?”

“Y-yeah?”

He signed, “IS THIS A BOX?”

“Y-.... yeah. A. A box.” He stared at me, and somewhere deep in my skull I could feel something catching fire. “I uhh. Well, b-boxes are easy to make. Easy to store.”

He picked up a pen and pointed it accusingly at me. He said, “Easy to draw.”

“That too.”

He considered the design, which was... literally, just a box. A box with blue paint on the outside. For pizazz. He asked, “Why blue?”

“For pizazz.”

“Any color wo-would add...” He stopped. “Pizza?”

“Pizazz.”

“That.”

“I like blue.” He nodded. I climbed onto my chair so that I could get level with him and asked, “What would you have designed?”

Dr. Gaster pulled from the red folder tucked under a drawing of some kind of.... winged car, with intricate patterns and designs. Scribbled in the margins was more of his strange handsy handwriting. I looked at him and asked, “Would that... live in our lab?”

He shook his head and started waving his hands. “No it’s more like. We’d get in and we’d? We’d drive! To the new timeline!”

“How?”

“When this puppy hits 83 miles an hou--”

“Dr. Gaster, no offence, but there’s barely twenty miles in our cave.”

“It’s not about the length, but the spee--”

“And almost none of it is straight. There’s no way to pick up speed.” Dr. Gaster slumped visibly. “Sorry, man, but.”

“No, no, you’re right.” He pointed at the box and said, “This is more practical.”

Well, heck. Maybe I am good at designing things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, um! Thank you all for reading and stuff. I've never had this many hits or kudos or anything like that, or as many people commenting. I know. Four is a lot.  
> Just know that I appreciate that a lot, and to you commenting, I've read your comments and have taken them into consideration. Thank you for being active readers!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> designing time machine innards is hard.

_This time, when he offered peace, the THING accepted. He watched as whatever was possessing the child vanished, replaced with just a quivering, frightened kid. The knife clattered to the ground, and the kid sank to their knees. Tears welled up in their eyes as they signed over and over and over and over again, “SORRY”._

_He smiled. He won. For once, he finally won. He said, “C’mere, kid. You got a one way ticket to hug town.”_

_The kid slumped into his arms, sobs echoing through the chamber. Every sin they’d committed drifted from their blubbering mouth, and danced along their quivering fingers. Every name, signed in intricate detail._

_Of course, it couldn’t last. The kid was crushed by his ribs, and their soul shattered. And he joked with them, and then said, “If we’re really friends... you won’t come back.”_

_And for a moment, he thought that he’d done it. And that the world would warp around him, and he’d be back in Snowdin, and there’d be bad spaghetti on the stove, and humming and nyeh-heh-hehing, but instead, it warped, and the THING was back. Angry._

_“Wow. Looks like someone just got dunked on,” he joked._

_The THING wasted no time in lunging, and he stepped out of the way, and the lasers came out._

Designing a time machine is easy enough. Making it work, well, that’s another thing. And it didn’t help that Dr. G’s baby sitter was out again, so I was on Papyrus duty.

It’s not that I don’t like kids. It’s just that I personally would rather be using my work day to, you know, work.

Dr. Gaster was working on the very delicate science behind the machine. That was more his forte, anyway. The science behind the science. I was working on the HUD display for our timeline monitor.

The idea was simple, really. It would show us a progression of timelines, and where they crossed and converged. That way, we could be sure that any movement either forward, backwards, or to another direction, would have no effect, or any noticeable effect.

It was probably MUCH easier if Papyrus was not sitting on my shoulders and demanding HORSIE.

“Look, for the last time,” I said, adjusting his little bone legs on my shoulders, “You can’t just go driving your pelvis into my vertebrae. That’s just rude.”

Papyrus didn’t care what I had to say. He dug his little phalanges into my skull and demanded, “HORSIE! HORSIE!!”

I sighed and got up. “Alright, alright. Horsie it is.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FORESHADOWING

“Hey, Dr. Gaster?” I asked, shortly after he reappraised his formula. The simulation on the computer hadn’t looked very promising.

He shoved the paper into my face, wordlessly demanding that I do something. But he didn’t seem like he was completely turned off from discussion.

I looked over the numbers, and letters, and other symbols. It didn’t help that he had handwritten this page, and his handwriting was so impossible to read. I squinted, and pulled out my glasses, and taped them to my face. They didn’t help much, but they helped just a little bit. I asked, “Do you believe that dreams come true?”

Dr. Gaster made an annoyed noise. He flipped the paper over and looked at it from a different angle. He then said, “Not particularly. Why?”

“Well...” I looked at the equation, and moved some numbers around. I presented it to him, and he looked surprised. Actually proud, for a second or two. He copied the numbers down as I said, “I keep having this dream, right? That I’m in the last hallway before the throne room, and... something I wouldn’t necessarily call human is there.”

“Then it’s a monster?” he asked.

“No, it’s not that either. It’s... something else.” He nodded. He looked over his numbers again as I said, “The... the thing has a knife, and I’m fighting it.”

“With magic?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not a fighter, Sans. You’re a thinker.” As if to emphasize, he knocked me on the skull.

I chuckled a bit as he ran the numbers through the computer. While we waited, I said, “Every time I have this dream, I feel like I have to fight, or else something horrendous will happen. And when I think I’ve won, the THING just keeps coming back.”

“There’s no hope?”

“I can’t win,” I say, “And I feel like if I don’t fight, like I said, something awful will happen.”

Dr. Gaster considered this information as the computer whirred in effort. It was hard to make out his expression. He finally said, “I certainly hope they don’t come true. Otherwise, I’m going to end up not existing some time soon.”

“That’s morbid.”

“It’s existential, really.”

“What’s it like?”

He considered for a moment, but before he could answer, the computer beeped. On the screen came a visualization of various timelines, moving and blending as they needed to.

Dr. Gaster and I watched with joint fascination. We’d done it. A simple box thing, that could watch and track timelines. It was probably my proudest moment to date. And I’m sure that neither of our weirdo dreams were going to come true.

_The THING didn’t get hit at all. He panted, leaning forward in exhaustion. The THING stood ready, ready to plunge its knife into his bony flesh. One slash, one stab, one tiny little knick, and he was as good as dead._

_He smiled and said, “Alright. You survive this, and you’ll see my SPECIAL ATTACK.” And he let loose, bones and lasers and teleportation and slamming on the walls and--_

_The little red heart shattered, and he could swear he heard something scream in frustration. He laughed as the world warped around him. He’d stopped keeping count, and the THING had, too._

_And they got to the point where he offered his mercy. The THING had melted away, revealing its inner self. Tired. Bored. He’d won. And the THING said yes, and he crushed it with its ribs, and suddenly, the world around him warped, and it was a real reset._

_There was snow under his feet, and trees hanging around overhead, and there wasn’t powder everywhere._

_And when he saw the human, it was a human, not covered in powder. Just kind of... there. Maybe this time, it would last._


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and then the plot happens

I pulled myself off the floor, trying to piece together what had happened. Dr. Gaster had taken his work home, and had called me, telling me that the device was ready to be tested. His house was in Snowdin, and the ferryman was kind enough to escort me there personally.

Snowdin was warm and friendly, for an icy cold town. Some of my colleagues had elected to study our unique ecological position, of four entire ecosystems within our small cavern, and how quickly it went from cold Snowdin to hot Hotland.

... I realized after I listened to their thesis how absolutely terrible our King is at naming things. Home, where we lived, Snowdin, a place that was snowed in, Waterfall, known for its waterfalls, Hotland, a land of hot, and New Home, a new home.

Regardless of how cold it was, or how poorly named it was, I was in Snowdin, at Dr. Gaster’s house. It was a lovely house, adorned with colorful lights. Two mailboxes sat out front. One for the doctor (empty), and one for someone named Helvetica. I presumed that was Papyrus’ mother, but I couldn’t be too sure. Helvetica’s mailbox was absolutely stuffed full of mail.

Inside was cozy, with a neat kitchen and two bedrooms upstairs. One for Papyrus, and one for Dr. Gaster. Papyrus saw me and charged down the stairs, barrelling into my knees. “HORSIE!” he squealed, demanding to be put on my shoulders.

Dr. Gaster glided out of his room and downstairs, assisting in the Papyrus care. He said, “I have the machine in the back room. Come with me.”

We went outside, and into the back room, his work space. There were blueprints that I couldn’t quite decipher on the walls, and a picture of him and Papyrus and presumably Helvetica. And a picture of him and me, and a few other assistants. I never thought I looked good in pictures, but at least in this one, I looked happy.

He gave this jumbled explanation of the machine, and it turned on, and...

... things after that were fuzzy.

I was on the floor, of his basement. It was suddenly very, very dusty. Uncharacteristic for Dr. Gaster, and definitely not my style. I like things dirty, not dusty.

Papyrus was still on my shoulders, asleep. Or maybe unconscious. Who knows. He looked okay. But Dr. Gaster, well, he wasn’t anywhere.

I cradled Papyrus in my arms and headed outside. Still as cold as I remembered, a cold that chilled you to the bone. There were no mailboxes, and a sign on the front door read “VACANTN”. I peeled the sign off, mostly because of the typo, but partially because I knew that Dr. Gaster lived here, right?

The inside of the house was barren and empty, like no one had ever lived there before. It was dusty, sure, but there was just no other signs that anyone had ever, ever lived there. No cute pictures of bones on the wall, no notes or family pictures, no nothing.

“Dr. Gaster?” I called out. There was no response. I went upstairs to his room, and it was empty, too. It had this beautiful balcony that overlooked the snowy field of Snowdin, and that was it. Papyrus’ room was the same, too. Nothing in it, not even his little bed.

I went back to the lab, and checked the machine. It wouldn’t work, no matter what I did. And when I looked at the photos that were still there...

... Dr. Gaster wasn’t there anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more plot happens and we meet dr. alphys

My first order of business, of course, was getting Papyrus taken care of.

I mean, until Dr. G shows up again, I’m in charge of the kid, and I can’t in good conscious leave him alone in a big house without his daddy. What happens if he falls down a flight of stairs? Dr. G’d kill me if he found out I’d let his little kid fall down a flight of stairs.

There was this teenage kid in Snowdin, a nice bunny who knew how to cook, who was understanding. She was a little confused by me directing her to the abandoned house, and offering Papyrus, who couldn’t be older than two. She said, “It’s weird. I don’t remember this house ever being here.”

“Really?” I asked as I tried to think of what all I would need. I needed Dr. Gaster, a bed or two, a drink, something to eat, a second drink, some kid’s clothes, some food in the fridge, a third drink...

“Well, I don’t remember it not being here,” the kid said, scratching her ears. She looked around and asked, “Have you uhh... always lived here?”

I shrugged, deciding not to answer. She didn’t seem to ask too much, handling a cranky Papyrus with ease. I then headed up to the river man, and went to Hotland. If Dr. Gaster wasn’t at home, he was at work. The CORE was still buzzing peacefully in the center of the Hotland, doing its thing, powering electricity. At least that hadn’t changed.

My keycard to the lab worked fine. i’m so glad I keep that thing with me. The one time I forgot it, Dr. Gaster just kind of stood there, in that creepy way he did, and stared. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and ended up crying that I wanted to go to work. He finally let me in, and I never forgot my card again.

Inside the lab was a mess. Warning bells were going off in my head. Dr. Gaster NEVER leaves a mess. EVER! One time a wrapper fell out of my room and before I could even bring it back in, there he was, picking it up and throwing it away. It was like the trash can had no bottom, or just teleported the trash somewhere else so that he didn’t have to see it ever again.

To see files and paperwork and boxes stacked up near the computer was weird.

There was even an upstairs, and I couldn’t see an entrance to the basement where we did most of our work. It looks like that got converted to a bathroom.

Weird.

My office was clean (MORE WARNING BELLS!), and his office was a mess of instant noodle wrappers, chisps bags, and... disproportionate humans with cat-like features.

Before I could even begin to fathom just how WRONG this was, someone stepped out of the bathroom. A lizardy woman, in a white coat like mine. She adjusted her glasses and timidly said, “S-s-sir, you’re... you’re not su-su--” And then she got a good look at my face. And she said, “Oh my god. You’re Dr. Fontaine, aren’t you?”

I shrugged in reply. “Can’t deny it,” I said, trying to keep my cool. This was NOT one of the assistants. She didn’t have the right to wear that coat! I have no idea who she is.

She pressed her hands against her cheeks and said, “Oh my god, I’m a huuuge fan of your work!!” And then she began prattling on and on about the work I’d supposedly done, and how she studied me a lot, and... then she finally said, “I-I’m sorry. I’m uhh. I’m Dr. Alphys. I’m uhh... the assistant to the Royal Scientist. I’ve been reading up on all your work, since you uhh...”

She looked away, clicking her talons together nervously. “Since I...?” I asked.

“Since you uhh.... died.”

“Oh.”

We both shared this awkward moment, with the sound of whirring machinery above and below us sounding deafening. I finally asked, “I died?”

“W-well...” She looked around, then gestured to follow her. She stepped into the bathroom, and I followed suit. It was the same elevator that Dr. Gaster had taken me into, the one that lead to the actual workspace. As we descended, she said, “I never really... believed you died. Reading your thesis and such, I knew you were... interested in...” She clacked her talons together again. “Temporal studies.”

I leaned against the wall and asked, “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Not clearly, no. I came here for answers.”

She fidgeted with her ID card a bit and said, “Well, our reports say you went to test a machine, and then you... vanished. The King presumed you were dead.”

“Do you know what happened to Dr. Gaster?” I asked.

She paused, then looked at me like I had lost my marbles. “Who’s... Dr. Gaster?” she asked at length.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things become clearer, and a resolve is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! If you have problems with derealization, or gaslighting, please be careful while reading this next chapter! Thank you very much for your consideration.

I paused for a moment, trying to get myself together. EVERYONE knew who Dr. Gaster was, right? I rubbed my temples and said, “... Dr. W. D. Gaster? Royal Scientist? My boss? The guy who thought up--” We passed by a giant skull, and I recognized it from his blueprints. From when he was studying determination or something. The thing that came from humans. “He made that!” I said, pointing at the skull.

Dr. Alphys looked at me worriedly, then asked, “Did you hit your head?” I shook my head. She pulled out the blueprints, the very same ones that I’d seen him cooing over, and they had no signature on the bottom. SHe said, “I worked from these blueprints, but... we have no record of anyone named Gaster, ever.”

“What?”

“Y-you heard me...”

“That’s not right.” I laughed and clutched at my head. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my notes. I’d drawn him, one day, when I was bored. I knew he was real. But the drawing I’d tucked there wasn’t there. I looked up and said, “Let me look at the records.”

She pointed to one of the terminals, and I rushed over. My credentials still worked, even though I was considered dead. Mostly because it registered my eye socket and not just a password, but still. Indeed, there was nothing about Gaster in there. I turned to her and said, “I need to talk to the King. He must remember him.” She fidgeted nervously. “Or the Queen, or the Prince, or--”

“The Prince is dead.”

“W-... what?”

She looked away, then said, “Everyone knows, except... well, you. Because you just... got back.” She fidgeted some more. “It’s... a...”

I took a deep breath. If it was the Prince, then everyone would know. I can talk to anyone about this. I couldn't waste time here. This Dr. Alphys was the only one who could get me an audience with the King. I said, “I need to talk to the King. He must remember.”

She sighed, and she headed to one of the phones in the room. She talked quickly, nervously, then hung up and returned to me. “He’ll uhh... He’ll be here,” she said.

“Great. Thanks.” I headed upstairs to wait.

The King was there in a flash, and he looked.... older. Not that he had aged, per se, but that he just looked tired. He still looked as soft and gentle as before, but there was a tiredness to his expression. He looked me over, and then finally said, “It’s been... a long time, Dr. Fontaine.”

No one’s called me Dr. Fontaine so many times in one day. It was... you know, as the assistant, I was very rarely ever considered a doctor, despite my years of schooling, working for that title. I was just Sans, and I liked it that way. Now Dr. Gaster, he earned that title, and I don’t think I even knew what W. D. meant.

It was that moment, when the King looked at me like an old friend, that I realized that Gaster really was gone. That he’d just... been wiped out, at least from people's memories. Of course, he was SOMEWHERE. If not in the history books, or in people’s memories, he had to be somewhere. Anywhere. He couldn’t be gone for good. He couldn’t be.

I smiled and said, “Hey. I uhh. I just wanted to um. Resign. From my position.”

“Resign?” the king asked. “Who would be the new Royal Scientist, then?”

I pointed at Dr. Alphys, who blushed profusely. I said, “She looks like a good option.”

“Oh, well...”

I headed out of the lab, and called behind me, saying, “I’m going to enjoy my retirement in Snowdin. Don’t mind me, okay? Just. Living the good life."

As I stepped onto the ferry for the third time that day, or maybe only the second time in recent history, I had just one goal in mind. I was going to find out what happened to Dr. Gaster, and I was going to bring him back. I knew what it was like growing up without a dad, and Papyrus didn’t need to go through that. And in a way, he was probably the closest thing I ever had to one. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked working with him, and I liked the direction he gave my life.

Wherever he was, whenever he was, I was bringing him back.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> family stuff!

I knew better than to lob myself headlong into any temporal conundrums, first and foremost. The last time that happened, I wound up in some undisclosed time period, with a three year old in my custody and my mentor and boss missing.

Of course, I wasn’t going to let myself forget the main goal. I wasn’t just going to say, “Well, that’s great and all, but you can just stay whenever you are, Gaster.” When I came back from New Home with everything I would need for raising Papyrus, and I set up the house in a way that was somewhat decent, I looked through all the drawers, trying to find photos. I found one, that hadn’t been in my pocket before, but was there now. It was a photo of me, and him, and all the assistants, in front of the completed CORE.

I didn’t want to forget what he looked like.

Once I had the photo framed, I started drawing him, from that one photo, over and over. To tattoo that image of him, happy and smiling, into the back of my mind. He rarely showcased how happy he was, unless Papyrus was in the lab, or in that rare moment in front of the CORE.

... Right. Papyrus.

What do I tell him?

Surely, he must know that something happened. Right?

I left the lab, and returned to the main house. Papyrus was sitting and watching television, and he looked excited when he heard me come in, but then seemed crestfallen. I wasn’t who he was expecting. I plopped down on the couch next to him.

Papyrus watched the TV, not minding me for a while, till the commercials came on. He looked over and asked, “Where’s Papa?”

Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

I took a deep breath and said, “He’s uhh... working late. He asked me to take care of you till he’s done.”

“When’s that?”

“Not sure, kiddo.”

Papyrus returned his attention to the TV.

I’m going to suck at this, aren’t I? I’m gonna end up raising this baby monster into some socially maladjusted brat who’s forever convinced that his papa has abandoned him. Papa! He calls him Papa! I can’t be Papa! I can’t!

Papyrus didn’t notice my internal monologue, or how much it was showing on my face. Thank god.

But then he said something strange. “Papa said...” he started. “Papa said you were big bro.”

“DId he?”

“Yeah. ‘Sthat true?”

I smiled. Okay. I can’t be Papa, but I can definitely be Big Bro Sans. I’m okay with that.”

“Yeah, it is.” I smiled and patted Papyrus’s head. Or rather, I... PAPPED it. Heh heh heh. I’m clever. I said, “I’m your big bro Sans, and I’m gonna take care of you until your dad gets back.”

Papyrus grinned up at me, then turned back to the television.


	14. Chapter 14

_“It’s a beautiful day out,” he said, looking somewhere beyond the THING in front of him. “Birds are singing... flowers are blooming...” He took a deep breath and said, “On days like these, kids like you...”_

_And then the lasers happened, and the bones happened, and the THING was dead._

_And it started over, like a stuck record. “It’s a beautiful day out,” he said, trying not to look at the THING before him. “Birds are singing... flowers are blooming...” He took a deep breath, trying to get the image of dust in the snow out of his mind. “On days like these, kids like you...”_

_He teleported behind the kid, and yelled, “Should be burning in hell!”_

_And then the lasers, and the bones, and the THING survived this time, a cocky grin on its face._

_“Here we go,” he said. The real fight was starting._

_But the first real round of bones took the THING by surprise, and it started over._

_The THING was covered in dust, from monsters of all lifes and creeds. He said, “It’s a beautiful day out,” and he didn’t even finish saying anything before he just shot a huge laser at the THING, and it died, and it started again._

Fortunately for me, I still had all my blueprints and such saved on the thumbdrive from the lab. I had the designs for the timeline observer, and I could build that up and study it, and figure out where the heck Gaster was.

I mean, you can’t just stop existing. Surely, he’s somewhere in one of the parallel timelines, and I could move across, grab him, bring him back, and put him into our timeline. That timeline has their own Dr. Gaster. That one’s MINE.

Papyrus knew not to come down to the lab, because that’s where Papa does all the dangerous work. But I also knew not to leave a kid alone in the house with just the television on. Monster children need enrichment in their lives, and TV alone can’t do that for them.

I started a dream journal, shortly after I arrived here. Weird, repetitive dreams of something that vaguely resembled a human, covered in a healthy coating of dusty powder, and a malicious grin on their face, charging at me with a knife. It was from this outside perspective, like I was watching a movie, and somehow the me in this dream teleported around the room, firing lasers and launching bones at this... incomprehensible creature, covered in dust. And when it died, things rewound, like a VHS tape, and it was back at the start.

I remembered what Dr. Gaster said, about dreams and how he dreamed that he had stopped existing. A shiver ran up my spine, and I hoped not to find out if dreams really do come true.

But I was still preparing myself, for whenever or if ever this... this THING appears, and threatens the world or... or something. I’d never been one for fighting, and sometimes even stubbing my toe made me feel like I was going to scatter to dust. But I knew I had to learn, and I had to get good at it, somehow. I had to be ready.

My magic had this weird property, and I had tried studying it, but it never seemed to affect any of the monsters in the underground. It did more damage to someone the higher their level of violence was, and most people in the underground had an abysmally low level of violence. Don’t think I’m saying that’s a bad thing. It is a very, very good thing that I don’t live in an enclosed cavern full of volatile people with high LOVE. Hopefully, I’d never have to use that against anyone.

But if a some kind of not-quite-human were coming through the area, covered in the powdery remains of the denizens of the monsters... well, maybe it’d prove my hypothesis.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

Waterfall was mostly unpopulated these days. The damp climate was great for our aquatic kind, but not many other people lived here. The perfect place to practice some magic, I figured.

My magic appeared as bones. Of course. Karmic humor. I could make regular white bones, the kind that whapped you and did that LV based damage stuff, and blue bones. Blue bones hurt you only if you move through them. I was deadly accurate with flinging them, but... well, I needed to practice other magic, too.

I’d seen Gaster use magic twice while I worked with him. The first time was when I’d left Papyrus unattended in the workshop, and he’d somehow gotten onto one of the tables. He was just about to fall when I saw Gaster reach out, turn his soul a deep blue, and gently lift him up. Papyrus seemed thrilled with the whole affair, having the time of his life. The second time was when the CORE prototype needed a strong magical blast to get it started, so he conjured up this HUGE SKULL and BLASTED IT TO SHIT!

Didn’t seem that hard, honestly.

I mean, I did blue bones, right? How hard was it to turn a person’s soul blue? And it was a skull! That’s a bone, right? The head bone’s connected to the uhh. Other bones. Yeah.

So I focused my energy, and I could feel SOMETHING coming together, and I opened my ey--

Whoa.

It wasn’t QUITE the same as Gaster’s blaster, but it certainly WAS a skull blaster. I gently tipped the top part of the skull open, allowing its mouth to open. A substantial laser fired from its mouth, screaming across the water in front of me.

“HEY!”

Oh shit.

A young fish girl in armor that looked a bit too big for her hopped out of the water and crashed down in front of me. The skull dissipated, like it had never been there. She pulled herself up to her full height, and levelled a water-based spear against my neck. I’m short already, but this girl was... impossibly tall, easily six feet tall, and she didn’t look like she was done growing yet.

She demanded, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, firing lasers on the water? You think no one lives here? You could’ve hurt someone!”

I backed up a bit, and she approached me, dangerously. I raised my hands meekly and said, “I uhh. Just um... Just. Practicing?”

“For WHAT?” she demanded, aiming the spear closer to my neck.

“For um. I uhh.” There were certainly a lot of guard dogs in Snowdin, watching the entrance from the old Ruins, for any humans. But maybe... “I um. I want to be... a sentry.”

“A sentry?” she asked, slightly lowering her spear. “You? You look like a scrawny, bony, runt.”

“Well, that’s not surprising. I’m literally made of bones.”

The girl glowered, then said, “You need to prove yourself to ME.”

“And you would be...?”

She twirled her spear dramatically, saying, “I am Undyne! And I’m in training to be in the Royal Guard!!”

“Uhh.... cool.” Great. Now I was in a fight with this punk. Err. In training Royal Guard member. I remember that Gerson was the Captain of the Royal Guard, but it had been... well, from what I’d seen, it had been... a time... since I was gone. Maybe he was dust. Maybe he was senile at this point. Who knows? ... hey, if he’s still around, I can ask about Gaster. He’s sure to remember him.

Snapping me out of my reverie was a water-based spear flying past my head. I jumped out of the way, and reached out to Undyne. A series of blue bones flung at her, and she skillfully stood and did nothing. “Ha!” she yelled. “Clever! A lot of Snowdin dogs already do that, and I’m BETTER than them!!”

She retaliated with more spears, and I managed to sidestep all of them. When I got into fights when I was a kid, I learned how to step out of the way of most attacks. Can’t hurt what you can’t hit, after all. I reached out for her soul, trying to turn it blue, but instead only managed more blue bones.

More spears, and more blue bones. She bellowed, “Why don’t you try that laser thing again?! Or you too scared?! When a human comes through, you gotta be ready!!”

“Alright, jeez!” I yelled. I focused on the energy in front of me, and another skull appeared. With a wave of my hand, its mouth opened, and a beam of energy burst from its mouth. It hit the girl square on, but it looked more like it tickled than anything. She didn’t have any LV yet. She hadn’t sullied her hands.

“That kind of tickled!” she said. “Cool trick, though!”

“Thanks,” I said. Suddenly, my soul was a vivid green, and I couldn’t move. She hopped around me, hurling spears at me, and I was able to direct a shield to block the spears. I asked, “How’d you do this soul changey thing?”

“Oh, the green thing?”

“Yeah. I been trying but I just keep getting bones.”

“Well, that’s because you’re a bonehead!” More spears, and I flung more bones at her. “You gotta just... Feel the essence of green, you know?”

The essence of green, huh... I reached out, and felt the essence of blue. Blue, like heavy clothes that keep you warm. Blue, like heavy thoughts that weigh you down. Weight... And suddenly, her soul was that same shade of blue, and she was suddenly impossibly heavy, weighed down by her own armor. She tried to hop, but she was far too heavy.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Not bad!”

I grinned sheepishly. “Now that I got the hang of it...” I reached out, and felt my own will going with my hand. Weight usually follows gravity, but for Undyne, I could change it to any direction my hand went. She flew up to the ceiling, hanging upside down by her feet.

“WHOA!!!” she yelled. “THAT IS SO COOL!!!!!! How do you DO that?!”

“I’ll tell you if I have the job!”

“DEAL!”

I slammed her down to the ground, knowing that all my magic only really hurts if you’ve got a bit of LV behind you. She jumped to her feet and said, “Welcome to the sentries, uhh....”

“Sans. Sans Fontaine.”

“Nice to meet ya, Sans. Now, tell me!” She pointed her water spear at me again and demanded, “How do you do it?”

I grinned up at her, and replied, “Very carefully.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sans does something not so smart

Children are difficult.

Papyrus was growing fast. Very fast. It was like an inch a day, it felt. There was a library--err, pardon me, a librarby--in town, and I checked out a series of Fluffybunny books. The income from my new sentry job was nice, and we could actually afford food, but... well, I’d never been one for cooking. I mean, I sure as heck tried a lot, but it wasn’t quite good.

The dogs were nice enough. Easy to get along with. Easily placated by pets. And sticks. And tossing bones. Fortunately none of my real ones. Just magic ones.

Things were... nice.

I finally was able to look at the machine. It smelled like burning. Something inside probably fizzled. I cracked open the outer shell, and...

... Oh. Well.

The insides of the machine had been entirely burnt away, leaving nothing but a couple tufts of thick, white fur inside. DOGS. It’s always dogs, isn’t it? I pulled the clumps out, and somewhere, I heard distant barking. Almost to the tune of something.

Ah well. I can’t focus on that now. I had Dr. Gaster’s blueprints here, in the lab, and it was just a matter of reproducing the materials. The thing was powered by geothermal, so I could just tap into the house’s electric grid at this point. It was just making all the electronics inside the machine work right that would be difficult. And considering that Dr. Gaster’s handwriting was basically indecipherable to me. I couldn’t be a hundred percent certain.

I winged it.

Heh heh. The other day, I found out the guy’s name was Wingding. Winged. Get it? Heh. I kind of guestimated what his figures were, what he was going for, and what he meant by certain items. I tossed things in, did my best, and it looked the same as I remembered it, mostly.

But before I could power it on, it did itself.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dawning.

One time, I read an explanation of how a popular game didn’t have error handlers. It just didn’t make sense, or it didn’t have enough space. And someone likened how the game handled garbage data as opening a book, tearing open the cover, looking inside, and saying, “Hmm. That looks good.” And then it tries to run it. It doesn’t usually end well.

That kind of happened, after the machine turned on.

Except instead of a game program, it was my mind. It was like the fabric of the universe had torn and presented itself to me as text, and I understood it, reading it for what it was. Suddenly, every room in this underground had a number, and I knew where each of them was, and some of them that didn’t actually exist. Fake rooms, or rooms that shouldn’t be seen by mortal eyes. I knew them all.

And with a little effort, I was able to exit the lab, which should have put me into room 143, but instead directed myself to another room. My bedroom. Upstairs. I could do that with any room ever, and I didn’t see why I...

... well, that’s a lie. I knew why I shouldn’t.

When I stared off into the whatever it was, the fabric of the universe (which surprisingly is a lot like corduroy) or whatever, I knew something deep inside. I knew that Dr. Gaster had been here, at the ends of the world, and he’d...

... Maybe he’d stayed too long, or stared so long at the abyss that it stared back at him, puncturing holes in him and weaving him into this very fabric that made up our universe. Or maybe he was still there, somewhere beyond the edges of comprehension.

When I passed from my room to my sentry station, near the edge of Snowdin and the old door that lead to the Ruins (I had never seen it closed, but now it was, and it never opened), I could see on the edges of my vision that same space, if only for a split second. I was gliding along the threads that held things together, and if I were to slip, I would knot up the universe, and I would tumble through this mess of fabric that made the universe. Maybe I’d end up like him.

For a while, I sat and considered my stance on bringing Gaster back. If he’d really become lost somewhere else in some fourth or even fifth dimension, maybe bringing him back would end poorly. Maybe it would just tug something loose, and everything would unravel.

And then from that brief place on the edge of the universe, as I slid through the cracks in the world, I could see the way the timelines connected. They were like the display I had made, once, and it all made sense. Until some kind of anomaly out there came along and just...

... they stopped.

I thought back to the dream I had last night, the dream where I stood before that thing that wasn’t quite human, and wasn’t quite monster, but was brandishing a knife, covered in powder. The me in that dream had said something to the effect of, “I thought maybe the anomoly might just need some good laughs, some bad food, and maybe this would all end. But I guess I was wrong. You’ll never be happy.”

And then I realized that that THING was the anomoly, and I knew I had to stop it. Maybe, if I stopped it, I could get Gaster back, safely.

It was just a matter of waiting.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> snow brings out memories

"Sans?"

"Yeah, bro?"

Papyrus fidgeted. He was eight years old now, and he was brilliant. He loved going with me to the sentry job, and had dreams of catching a human of his own. He'd never seen one, mind you, but he was so hype for the day he would. Word was if you caught a human and brought it to the Capital, you'd get into the Royal Guard. That was his dream, personally.

We were out in the snow, deep in the forest of Snowdin. The air was cold, but neither of us minded. Well, I didn't mind. Papyrus was swaddled up in two sweaters, waterproof pants, a scarf, a hat, mittens, and earmuffs. Pap was usually good at keeping his core temperature up, but standing or sitting out here... he wasn't so great at keeping warm.

He looked up at me, and I realized how much he'd grown. Soon, he'd be as tall as me. ... granted, that wasn't very tall, but I had a feeling that maybe one day, he'd be towering over me, like everyone else. Maybe he'd be like his daddy.

"What um..." He fidgeted a bit, then said, "Some of the uhh... the other kids've been pickin' on me."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah..."

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but..."

"Words leave psychological damage for years to come?"

"Precisely. What're they saying?"

Papyrus fidgeted with his mittens, then asked, "What happened to Mom and Dad?"

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I DO NOT NEED THIS TODAY...

Okay. How do I handle this. I kind of gathered that Helvetica was Papyrus' mother, but none of the journals or blueprints or anythign I was able to recover from Gaster said anything about her, or how she died, or even IF she died. Meanwhile, I couldn't exactly tell Papyrus what REALLY happened to his Papa. Lemme just tell the fragile eight year old baby bones that his Papa's somewhere between the fourth and fifth dimension, probably a shell of his former self, and I haven't found a way to get him back yet?

I laughed and said, "Well, that's an awful reason to pick on someone. I mean, doesn't Bunnifer have two moms?"

"Well, she has two moms!" Papyrus said. "Two! And moms, at that! I've only got you." Damn. I was hoping that would work. Papyrus stood indignantly and asked, "Please, Sans. I'm eight now! I can handle it!"

No, you can't.

I sighed and said, "Yo--... OUR mom. She um... she... got... sick." That sounded right. I mean, I'd never kept up with my birthmother, but the orphanage kept me in the loop. She did actually get sick, at some point, and that's all I know about her. As for Helvetica, well, might as well just fuse the two together, right?

"So she's...?"

"I put her dust into your favorite scarf, so she'd always be with you."

Papyrus gripped his scarf a little tighter, and inhaled deeply. That much WAS true. It was kind of dusty when I pulled it out of the attic. It could be any kind of dust, though. "What about Dad?" he asked.

Great. Now I gotta tell him about Gaster. I would've knelt down to his level, but he WAS at my level. I said, "Papa, um... He went somewhere else, and I'm trying to find him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He's out there, somewhere." I gestured vaguely.

"You think he went to the Surface?"

"Maybe."

Papyrus beamed and said, "I'm gonna capture the seventh human, Sans! Then, we can all go to the Surface, and he'll be there!"

I wasn't about to dash his dreams. Not yet. I smiled and said, "Yeah. We'll go there, one day. I'm sure we'll see him again."


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doors

Doors are invitations, in a way. Invitations to knock on, and offer knock-knock jokes. And apprently share them with some woman on the other side of the door. Invitations to mystery, to stories, to...

Papyrus was twenty now. It was hard to believe that it'd been seventeen years since the incident. I'd settled into life here, in Snowdin. I hadn't aged, but I wasn't sure if that was normal for skeletons, or a side effect of whatever it is I saw in that strange place. Maybe, whenever the anomoly shows up, Gaster'll be the same. That was nothing but wishful thinking, but...

Papyrus wanted to be part of the Royal Guard, and had his own job as a sentry in Snowdin. I'd picked up a few other jobs, including sentry in Hotland, sentry in Waterfall, telescope vender, hot dog vender... I mean, I could be anywhere I needed to in a flash, right? Might as well get some extra money.

Part of me wanted to fix the machine, but another part of me worrie that one day, Papyrus would wander into the lab, and I'd have two people not-existing because of something I could've prevented. I don't know why I thought that Gaster's non-existance was my responsibility, but I knew that somehow, I could get him back, so it must be my fault.

I found myself near the door, when I heard something ominous. Ominous stone, moving across ominous stone. Creaking. Opening. And out stepped...

... a human.

They looked so much like Chara, the tiny human who'd come hang out in the lab with Asriel sometimes, that at first I thought I'd seen a ghost. But then I saw they were different. Very different.

As they walked along, I realized something. They were the anomoly, and they were the key to getting Gaster back. Or, no, I was projecting. They were just a human, right?

A human with no heart, I realized, when they killed Papy

Doors are invitations, in a way. Invitations to knock on, and offer knock-knock jokes. And apprently share them with some woman on the other side of the door. Invitations to mystery, to stories, to...

Papyrus was twenty now. It was hard to believe that it'd been seventeen years since the incident. I'd settled into life here, in Snowdin. I hadn't aged, but I wasn't sure if that was normal for skeletons, or a side effect of whatever it is I saw in that strange place. Maybe, whenever the anomoly shows up, Gaster'll be the same. That was nothing but wishful thinking, but...

... wait a second.

WAIT A SECOND.

I literally JUST went through this thought process. And I was at the door, and it creaked, and groaned, and out stepped the human, a different expression on their face. They were expecting my whoopee cushion joke, and they...

They...

Doors are invitations, in a way. Invitations to knock on, and offer knock-knock jokes. And apprently share them with some woman on the other side of the door. Invitations to mystery, to stories, to...

I made a mental note. This human, with their ambiguous hair and striped shirt, was the anomoly causing the timelines to wrap around and cross over. Or, if not this human, then something beyind them. Another creature, perhaps controlling them.

Hopefully, I could talk sense to them.

Doors are invitations, in a way. Invitations to knock on, and offer knock-knock jokes. And apprently share them with some woman on the other side of the door. Invitations to mystery, to stories, to...

... invitations to disaster.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Door.

Door.

These things just kept happening, over and over again. People would die, and turn to dust, and I'd be left alone. Different combinations of people. Sometimes Papyrus. God. There was nothing quite like watching this little tyke die. I don't care how old he actually is, but he's still my baby bro. Err. Adopted son? .... no, baby bro. He'd always be baby bones, missing a couple teeth, learning his magic, over enthused about pasta... And it was always awful, coming out of Snowdin and heading to Waterfall to find his dust, and his scarf, and his Royal Guard costume. It always hurt, no matter how often it happened. I'd tried everything I could to stop the anomaly, but...

Door.

I stopped caring, I realized. I stopped doing research, or writing things down, or caring about my own mental health. I mean, what's the point? If I wrote things down, any observations, I would just... it would happen again, and I'd lose everything all over again. I stopped making headway on the Gaster case. I stopped caring about anything. I have no idea how long it'd been since it started, or how long this would go on. Days, definitely. Weeks? Probably. Maybe months, or maybe even years.

Door.

One time, the human, with the anomaly's guidance, took us to the surface. The sun's even more beautiful than I could imagine, and it was... warm. I had gotten used to the cold of Snowdin, but this warm... it wasn't Hotland warm. It was comforting, like being wrapped in a blanket. And Papyrus got to drive his car down the highway, sun in his face, wind in his scarf... and I stopped worrying. For once, I felt like it was all over, like we could move on. And then....

Door.

And there I was, the door creaking open with a groan. And there was the THING I'd seen in my dreams. This creature, with no emotion, no mercy, no SOUL. Well, a SOUL, I realized. But no heart in that soul. And there was powder, in their hair, on their clothes, and a sick, emotionless face, with no hope. That time, it hurt so much more. So much impossibly more.

And Papyrus, god bless him, he sees the good in everyone, and every thing. And he tried, so hard, and...

... I held his scarf again, and knew what had to be done.

I'd taken to being in the final corridor, before King Asgore's throne. Sometimes, the human and the anomaly would come and kill Asgore. Sometimes, they wouldn't. Sometimes, I'd be there, waiting, and they'd never show up. But when they stepped through those doors, I knew. It was time.

"Heya," I said.

They said nothing. Typical.

"You've uhh. You've been busy, huh?"

They stepped forward.

"Hey, listen. If you take one more step forward, you're gonna have a bad time."

They stepped forward again.

"Alright, don't say I didn't warn ya." I sighed, and thought of the woman behind the door. They must be dead, too, nothing but powder, and I was the only one who remembered them. "Sorry, lady. Some promises, I can't keep."

The THING pulled out its knife, and I knew that this was what I had been dreaming of. I said, "It's a beautiful day out. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like these... kids like you..."

And then it began, as I yelled, "Should be BURNING IN HELL!"

And it was like I dreamt. Lasers. Bones. Knife. Dodging. The THING dying, and dying, and dying. And I hoped, somewhere deep inside, that that dream I had, where I offered peace, and they stopped, and they went back to the door... I hoped, deep down, that would come true.


	21. Chapter 21

I suppose things like this DO happen, from time to time. NOT LIKE i wanted THIS TURN OF EVENTS to happen, but there wasn't VERY MUCH i could do.

THIS feeling of EMPTYness IS.

... EMPTY. i suppose.

I KNOW. I AM QUITE PROFOUND.

IT was weird, getting stabbed. more like it IS STRANGE. I dreamed of it constantly, and AM still surprised when it actually happened. EVERYWHERE was powdery, AND NOWHERE was safe. AT THE SAME TIME, though, I AM curious. will this be like SCHRODINGER'S CAT, where i'll be in this state of not-quite until that thing decides to reset? AND I HAVE LEARNED absolutely nothing, aside from THAT dust smells like bones, and I REALLY DO NOT LIKE BEING A CAT.

TIMELINES moving and SWOOPING AND swirling and CHANGING AND MOVING and ending and beginning AND SWAPPING AND STARTING OVER AND OVER AND never beginning and SWOOPING AND CHANGING and ending and beginning AND STARTING OVER.

how do i put it in words? IT IS.

DISORIENTING, to say the least.

THOUGH, i'm starting to understand what that anomoly wants. THERE IS A SORT OF PEACE knowing that for once, they might be satisfied. THAT COMES with its own burdens. WITH each reset, i came no closer to gaster. IT's like nothing's even worth it anymore. I AM tired, and THE WIND is cold today. AND once, I heard on radio AM the sound of the ocean, THE WAVES. I don't know how much longer i can take it. i AM THERE, BUT I AM NOT. it's like i'm a ghost or something. WHEN YOU THINK OF ME, there i am, taking a nap or something. I AM THERE, but i am not. BUT it's nice. WHEN YOU DON'T even try, you can't get hurt. and me? I AM NOT trying anymore.

it really is FASCINATING, in a way.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time shenanigans.

"Look, I gave up trying to go back a long time ago."

And the thing in front of me stopped, for a moment, and that flicker of a kid that I knew deep inside came back in full force. It put the knife down, and I waited, watched, hoped that they wouldn't come at me again. They slowly raised their hands and signed, "DON'T UNDERSTAND."

I crossed my arms, then said, "I tell you what. You come and tell me..." And I stopped, and remembered that Frisk didn't really like to speak. And sometimes that Anomaly made them speak, and I didnt want that thing to have anything to do with this. Frisk was a friend. I said, "You tell me this, when we're friends, and I'll tell you about what happened." And I signed "THE MAN WHO TALKS IN HANDS", and said aloud, "How's that sound, kiddo?"

Frisk nodded. And I expected that THING to come back, that amalgamation of Frisk and the Anomaly and whatever sort of malevolent spirit was piggybacking on the two of them. But instead, the world blurred and shifted away, and I was at the door to Snowdin.

First thing's first. I went back home and gave Papyrus my biggest hug ever. It was the same, whenever there was a reset after he was dead. Didn't matter if I was just trying to kill some kind of Anomaly, or what. Papyrus was important. He was surprised, of course, but he didn't say anything. Part of me wondered if anyone else was keyed in, but odds are, they weren't. I'd tried to explain to Alphys, once, but she didn't have anything on it. It was like the discussion never even happened.

For that, I was grateful. As much as I'd like to have someone to commiserate with about the state of the world we found ourselves trapped in, I'd much rather suffer through it alone than drag someone with me down this endless loop of existence.

Frisk arrived, right on time. They showed all the telltale signs of being a timetraveller (not every iteration of Frisk did, but a good number of them did), and went through with all of Papyrus' antics as usual. They were a regular sight on my couch, watching TV with Pap or something like that. Then, they went on to Waterfall, and soon it was Frisk, Undyne, and Pap on my couch.

Boy, she'd grown up, I figured. She didn't talk much with me about my job, aside from yelling at me now that she was my boss. She noted that Papyrus' magic was very similar to mine, and that made sense. He got his Papa's magic, probably, and I was just imitating it, after all. Very well, but still, it was Pap's natural element.

And then on to Hotland, and Frisk had the best time stacking hotdogs on their head. They questioned why thirty was an unreasonable number, and I didn't have a good answer for that. It just... wasn't a good number, I decided. I mean, if I kept stacking them, then they'd hit the cave ceiling, and no one wants cave ceiling h'dogs, do they?

... Cave floor h'dogs are okay, though.

And then there were some antics with Undyne and Alphys, and Frisk came in one day with a bag of popato chisps. Of course, I'd been down to Alphys' lab in the basement. She didn't know that I was down there, or that I knew what she was up to. I didn't blame her, though. I'd done some pretty fucked up shit for science, too, and I wasn't going to judge her level of fucked upness. At least all of her experiments still existed and weren't hurled at least five hundred years into the future, possibly more.

And then the judgement hall, and I blabbered on about LV and EXP and all that good stuff. I had to hand it to those timelines of Frisk and that murderspirit and the Anomaly. They really did let me test out that LV theory. And when I was done, just as I was about to vamoose, Frisk gently papped me on the shoulder, and held up their hands. And signed, "THE MAN WHO TALKS IN HANDS?"

I sighed a bit, then said, "C'mon, kid. You wanna see my secret lab?"

They nodded, and in a flash, there we were. Frisk had been here before, in various timelines, and this wasn't the first time that this particular Frisk had seen the room, but it was the first time they'd ever been here with me. They looked over the blueprints, and rummaged in the drawers a bit, and looked under the tarp that held the machine that started all of this, then looked at me, waiting for an explanation.

I pulled out the picture I had of me, and the assistants, and Dr. Gaster, and handed it to Frisk. Of course they'd seen it before, but they studied it again. They looked up at me confused, and I asked, "You ever hear of a man named W. D. Gaster?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have Chrome check and make sure that I've spelled "anomaly" correctly whenever I mention it.  
> Not once has any of my drafts had the word "anomaly" spelled correctly.


	23. Chapter 23

Frisk shook their head, and their hair was tousled about. They were well fed, and well cleaned, and free of dust. Unlike the last time I saw them, when they looked like they hadn't been cleaned since they arrived in the underground and were caked in the powdery dust of every other monster. I lingered a little bit on the thought of how all of us monsters were the same in death. Just dust. And then I shook that thought away, and got away from there.

I pointed out me in the picture, and said, "That's me."

Frisk nodded.

I pointed to Dr. Gaster. "That's W. D. Gaster." At Frisk's confusion, I said, "He was my boss, and the Royal Scientist."

Frisk cocked their head. Away from the dustshed of their path sans mercy, they were a pretty cute kid. They signed, "ALPHYS?"

I shook my head. "Well, yeah, she is, now. But before her as Dr. Gaster."

They looked over the picture again, then looked up. "RELATED?"

"What? No, no." I laughed. "I mean, just because he's a skeleton doesn't mean I'm related to him." I looked away and said, "He's Papyrus's dad, though." Frisk looked surprised. "Yeah. When things got hairy, and Gaster went... wherever... I took Papyrus on my own." Frisk looked up at me, confused. "Yeah, I'm not his real brother. I've done the best I can, though."

Frisk looked back at the picture, then signed, "YOU?"

"What about me?"

"MOM? DAD?"

"Oh." Of course. Touchy subject... I smiled my best and said, "Yeah, I was an orphan. It's kind of unusual to hear about down here. I mean, humans happen accidentally, don't they?" I knew, from another one of the timelines, that that was a touchy subject for Frisk. They bristled a bit, and I said, "It happened with me, though, so... hey, it's not so bad." I grinned the best I could, but even I could tell that it was strained.

Frisk looked back at the picture, then quietly whispered, "What happened?"

I sat down in my chair and pointed to the machine under the tarp. I said, "He and I made that, together. We wanted to observe and document various timelines, and he even wanted to be able to move across them. I mean, I was down for that, too, but. He finished up the thing here, in this house, because he did a lot of work off the clock."

Frisk looked again at the machine.

I continued, "We fired up the bad boy, and suddenly, I was down in the basement here, with Papyrus. Gaster was just... gone. And the house had gone with us, sans all the furniture."

Frisk snickered. I cocked my head, and they signed, "SANS."

"Oh. I made a funny." Frisk nodded. "Well. I didn't mean to, but I'm okay with that." I looked over to the door out to Snowdin and said, "Whaat I'm not okay with is just... that Gaster's out there, non-existing. He's somewhere in like the fifth dimension or something, stuck in the fabric of the universe."

Frisk frowned, and they looked deeply concerned. They asked quietly, "How do we get him back?"

"I've been figuring that out for... a long time," I said. "I haven't come to any good conclusions yet. I tried fixing the machine, but it just didn't want to work." I sighed deeply and said, "I just really don't want Papyrus to be without his Papa any longer."

Frisk looked away, then asked, "Does he...?"

"He remembers bits and pieces. He was really young when it happened."

Frisk fidgete nervously, then said, "I should..."

I nodded. "Yeah. I shouldn't keep you any longer." Part of me deeply hoped that whenever that goddamned Flowey took my soul, and Frisk did their magic, that they would just forget this whole mess entirely. They'd forget I told them, and they'd forget about Gaster. But at the same time, I hoped against hope that maybe this time, Frisk could help me. It was a vain hope, but...

Hey, hopes and dreams worked for them, right? They gotta work for me, too.


	24. Small Shock

Dark, darker, and darker still...

... Oh.

Hi there.

I um. I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon.

....

Would you like some coffee? Maybe tea?

Me? No, thank you. The stuff goes right through me.

Heh. That's a joke.

I've been thinking of them for a long time. Wanna hear another one?

Me.

That's it. That's the joke.

Heh.

... I suppose that isn't terribly funny, is it?

...

This room is awfully gray, isn't it? Neither black nor white, neither here nor there.

How did you find me?

... That makes no sense. My existence isn't very Fun.

... You say someone's looking for me?

That's hogwash. I'm like this room. Gray. Neither here nor there. Neither anywhere, nor nowhere.

... To be honest, I'm surprised I can speak in such riddles. It's been so long since I've seen anyone. Or maybe it's been so... recent, that I just go right into it.

...

The Surface?

You've been?

What's the sun like?

... How is...

... And the other?

Of course I'm worried about him, too. What, you think a man just goes into the void and forgets about the people who care about him?

... That was rather mean. I'm sorry.

...

You'd like to show me?

... I'm sorry, dear. I'm not some deus ex machina to be--

\--Oh, I'm sorry. That means "god out of the machine". It means that against all odds, as if willed by some deity, everything goes back to normal.

...

I can't leave, you know.

In a way, I'm a patch, filling in the own hole that I left behind. Something else would have to be put here, to fill in the hole.

...

An interesting proposal, I'll admit. But every other version of me has the same predicament. That we're all filling in a hole that we tore, and should we be removed and placed elsewhere, things would not end well.

...

How did the hole get there in the first place?

... To be honest, I don't remember it very well. It's been so long, and yet so short. Everything is going one way or another.

...

What?

...... Oh, that's simple. Here, I phrase word by thought. Out there, I use my hands. Speaking is tedious and tiring and stressful. You understand, don't you?

You're a bright child, you know.

...

...

...

Maybe sewing analogies weren't the best choice. It's more that I AM the fabric itself, not just a patch holding it together. To remove me is to remove a thread from the weave, and that would bring everything crumpling down.

...

Do you sew in your free time? You're really good at deciphering these things.

... Alright, so suppose that my invisible holding thread becomes a more apparent holding thread. How do we make that happen?

...

... Have you washed that hand recently?

...

Wosh u hands and eyes.

Heh. That's also a joke. I'm no Woshua.

... Yeah, he's cute. A lot of monsters are cute.

...

You do realize that if this goes wrong, you and I will be stuck here, together, forever? And there's only so much you can take of yourself, let alone another person.

...

Well, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I just wouldn't want that to happen to you.

... Alright. Lead the way.


	25. Chapter 25

"You know," I said, as I looked into the inky blackness of my coffee, "This is a hellofalot better than drinking ketchup."

"I know, right?" Papyrus blurted. He had his own cup, and he didn't take his coffee the same way he took mine. He took it with way too much sugar, and way too much cream, but hey, he's a kid. Kind of. I mean, he's always gonna be MY kid, I guess, even if he's almost twenty now. "It gets you awake and is sweet and--" He looked over. "Oh, morning, Pop!"

Gaster waved, like the zombie he is in the morning. I slid him a cup of coffee, and realized how similar they were in terms of taste, him and Papyrus. Gaster took his coffee with a reasonable dose of sugar, and a reasonable dose of cream, but he also took an unreasonable dose of coffee to make up for it. He needed at least three cups to get going in the morning, and four to be sociable, and five to be productive. Couldn't blame the guy, after all.

Things on the surface were nice, with the three of us. I don't remember why I started living with Wingdings Gaster and Papyrus Gaster, but hey, little ol' Sans Fontaine doesn't mind. It's a roof over my head, and we'd been together since... a long time, really. We lived in the underground, too, in the same old house.

I was still adjusting to the lack of resets, and knowing that every day I would find myself (usually) waking up in my own bed, in this house, and not in front of a door, with a human child of varying stages of murderous rampage beyond. I mean, it's nice, but when you do that dance for however long...

... and sometimes, the nightmares were too real. The ones from other timelines, I presumed, where Papyrus died, and Gaster went after the human himself, and he had the same fate. Or the ones where I was just about to get done in by that thing, that anomaly murder being behind the human I called my friend, when Gaster would jump out, and take the blow for me, giving me time to run. How he did it, I may never know.

What I did know was that he was here, despite those nightmares where he wasn't. Those ones where he just wasn't... anywhere.

I found those to be the oddest.

Gaster put his mug down, and Papyrus was already refilling it. He was chattering on about the human holiday they called "Halloween" or something, and people dressed up, and how he wanted to bring back his royal guard outfit. Gaster downed his second cup, and signed, "ANOTHER". Pap was already on it, chattering away like he hadn't been interrupted at all.

As Gaster took a sip of his third cup of coffee, he looked at me and signed, "ARE YOU OKAY?"

Papyrus looked at me, too, and asked, "Yeah, Sans, you're really out of it today! What's going on?"

Oh, Papyrus. Oh, Gaster. They had no idea.

I said, "Nothing, just... thinking."

And then our front door opened, and in rushed Frisk. They usually knocked, but they were practically family at this point. I mean, aside from those timelines where they killed everyone. I tried to forget those as best I could. They looked at me excitedly, then signed, "DID IT WORK?"

I cocked my head, like the dogs in Snowdin used to. I said, "I have no idea what you're on about, kid."

They frowned deeply, then looked at Gaster, then back at me. Gaster, for his own benefit, was deeply absorbed in his coffee. For a moment, I thought the black shawl he usually wrapped himself up in was consuming him, in a cloud of darkness. Must be some trick of the light.

Frisk signed, "TIME TRAVEL?"

And that phrase, that idea... it brought it all back. About how Gaster had used that machine, the same one that was sitting in the basement now (and I had no idea how to fix it, still), and had brought us to a future point in Snowdin. And how he was gone after that, and I was the only one who remembered him, and Papyrus had bits and pieces, and...

... and I had told Frisk about Gaster, and how he was gone, to some other realm, or just part of... something else.

I looked at Gaster, like I'd never seen him before. Truth be told, I hadn't remembered a lot about how we got to this point. Presumably, using whatever powers he'd acquired in the fifth dimension, he'd manipulated my memories, and Papyrus's. I couldn't be mad about that, I guessed. He'd just snuck in, like he was never gone.

Frisk beamed, apparently gathering that I understood the gravity of the situation. I said, "Thanks, kid. You uhh... You did the impossible, huh?"

"Yes, indeed!" Papyrus chirped. I looked at him, and for a moment, I hoped that he didn't have the same recollection that I did. He said, "You managed to get Pop talking without FOUR cups of coffee!!"

Gaster laughed, the same kind of laugh from back in the lab, the kind that would be perfect on a villain of some sort. He signed, "YES. MIRACULOUS."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading "The Man who Talks in Hands". This has been a pleasure to write, and I hope it's been a pleasure for you to read. It was a rough couple of weeks, but if worst comes to worst, I can always use these words for my Nanowrimo project.
> 
> I may or may not write more Undertale fanfiction in the future. We'll see how the muse spins. Here's to more canonical information about W. D. Gaster, though.
> 
> Thank you, and good night.
> 
> P.S.: I still can't spell anomaly.


End file.
